Glass Slippers
by sincere7951
Summary: An anorexia story in the background of Cinderella story.
1. Chapter 1

"Open the door in the name of your king!"

As Ella was mending fire, a determined tone of voice intruded. It's unusual to have visitor right after the first sunray.

"Ella, Ella, someone is knocking; aren't you going to answer the door?" A rounded mouse tried to reach out his head from the apron Ella's wearing. She unfolded her palm for the little friend to stand firmly, meeting his curiosity.

"Sure I am, Gus. Did he just mention about the king?" said Ella. Replacing Gus into her apron pocket, she crawled out of the fireplace in haste. There's no time to clean up the cinder covering on her.

She opened the gate and there stood a royal messenger with a huge pack stuffing with letters on his bake.

"Good morning sir, how may I help you?"

Looking up at the country girl, the man frowned obscurely and stepped back a bit. "Here is a message from your majesty."

She noticed that once he spoke, his sky-high wig would slightly shake.

"Two weeks hence, there should be held a ball on the palace. At the ball, in accordance with ancient custom, the prince shall select his bride." He paused to take a breath.

"By royal command, every eligible maiden is to attend." He waddled forward and handed a letter to Ella.

"Well, thank you sir." She tried to refrain from laughing while waving him and his wig waddled away the house.

Much to Ella's surprise, as she walked bake inside both of her stepsisters had already dressed up, waiting in the parlor.

"You are not hiding this from us, Ella." Before she could ever response, Anastasia bore down upon her and grabbed the invitation.

"Now I'm going to be the princess!"

"Don't be silly, the prince is mine. Give it here you mean old thing." Drizella jumped up to Anastasia's bake, rob the invitation from her hand.

After Ella gathered herself up, she heard high heels clicking, clicking, clicking from the stairs along with the trembling of Gus's teeth, and it's getting clearer.

Finally, it stopped.

"Enough, girls."

Ella yawned for the farce. She could never understand the points of their quarrels nor every time when that drove their mother downward.

The lady snorted at Ella and turned to her daughters, "I'm glad to have two horses on the race," she gazed at them from top to toe, "still, there are few things we need to work on."

The lady asked them to come to her chamber for she would share the secret to win the prince's heart. Ella's quite satisfied for the outcome since it meant a day without their torments. But there's one thing left.

"Maiden, your breakfast is ready."

They stopped pacing.

"Dump it." The lady narrowed her eyes, "And you are not to prepare any breakfast in the next two weeks."

"Look at you," said Anastasia, "all covered with cinder, do clean yourself before next time you talk, Cinderella!"

The three evils laughed coarsely all the way upstairs. However, even if they were long gone, the laughter still echoed in the parlor.


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

Left alone in the parlor, Ella walked into the mirror centered on the wall behind the room. She carefully wiped out the cinder on her face and stared at the reflection unveiled in the mirror. Gus, on the other hand, didn't have that kind of mood. His face had already reddened like a bomb.

"That's just absurd." He was even more upset after seeing Ella's face. Such a delicate feature would hypnotize the prince's heart at once if she attended the ball, he thought.

"That's fine." Ella smiled since marrying a stranger had never been her interest anyway. However, it might be interesting to outshine her stepsisters for one time.

"But said if I do go, there isn't anything proper in my wardrobe."

"Well don't forget about your mother. She had left quite some."

Ella lifted her head. She knew what Gus meant; it wasn't the evil lady upstairs but her birthmother, the sweetest lady she had ever known. It's unfortunate that she passed away so early that Ella couldn't remember her face clearly, for herself was simply a little girl. However time flew by, now she was an adult, her mother's old dress should fit well naturally.

"The problem is," Gus frowned, "The dresses are put in the bottom of your stepmother's wardrobe.＂

"Then we'll have to make a plan to sneak in without notice." Maybe I would behave a few days first, Ella thought.

Time flew by, two weeks were almost due; however, they were not so sure about the idea anymore. Following her stepmother's words, Ella didn't bring breakfast tray to their beds as usual. Strangely, at lunch time and dinner time there were still not their presence except for one time her stepmother showed up at table and then asked her for two bowls of soup. Meanwhile, she handed pills which she asserted were beneficial for Anastasia and Drizella to Ella and had Ella add all to their soup when she bought it upstairs.

Ella asked further.

She didn't answer but scold her for procrastination. Eventually she gave in persuading her and added the pills herself.

From then on, Ella hadn't laid a sight on both of her stepsisters.

"How are you going to get the dress if they never leave the room?" Gus was frustrated.

"I'll pretend that I am to fetch the dirty laundry." Ella felt like whatever was going upstairs it must be abnormal. And so she went. When she swung the handle and stepped inside, the light was too feeble to see anything clear. But once her eyes adapted to the darkness, the scene in front startled her at once. A lot of numbers were doodled on the walls and in the corner of the room; there were Anastasia and Drizella curling up like frighten cats. Ella seemed to hear they were enchanting something.

"Stepsisters?"

They didn't notice her presence. Ella walked closer to them, trying to understand what they said because she was really warry.

"…Empty is strong….Empty is good."

"…I won't have nothing to pollute my inside."

They were not died, but they were not alive. What curling in front were two shells without the soul. At this moment, Ella was too afraid to stand firmly. Was stepmother aware of their condition, she wondered. Furthermore, where was her stepmother? She lifted her head and looked around.

"What are you doing here!"

"Fet…Fetching laundry madam." Ella could barely utter a world and she knew her stepmother wouldn't buy the answer a bit. She picked up some of the clothes littered on the floor and rushed out to the chamber. The lady stared stingingly at her back off.

Ella ran all the way through the house. When she finally had her consciousness back, she was already in the entry of a local fair. To ease the nerve, she decided to walk around for a while. Just as her mood returned to serene, an old lady in a dark cloak halted her. She recognized her because she had done needlework for her one time. To move out from her stepfamily's torture, she had to save money in this kind of way.

"Good girl, I trust you with these clothes." As expect, the old woman gave another part-time job to her. But this time, the payback was no longer gold. The woman took out a pair of glass slippers and put them on the table.

"Have these slippers and put them on my dear. Isn't there going to be a royal ball tonight?"

Ella turned her down at first for they were too costly and the trade would be unfair for her. The old woman smiled and explained that the shoes were actually passed down from her mother; however she had no daughter to inherit them. As the result, Ella finally nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ⅲ**

Next day morning, the whole town couldn't stop talking about the magical night. It's said that at the ball, the prince was so dazzled by a girl, who was absolute gorgeous but no one, not even the prince, knew her name. Some said that she must be a princess from a foreign land far away. However, what people were most interested in was her abrupt leaving when the bell of 12'o clock rang. Without the name and identity, all the prince possessed to find her was a glass slipper she carelessly left off when rushing out the palace. And so at that afternoon, there came an announcement claimed that the prince would marry any girl who fit the glass slipper.

The news went to Ella's house faster than she thought. As soon as her stepmother acknowledged it, she gathered both of her daughters in the parlor.

"Girls, our effort is finally going to pay off. Tomorrow, there will be a royal officer visiting our house to see whether you fit the slipper."

"Even though it might not be much helpful, you will remain eating nothing. Who knows if that can make you lose some of the fat on the feet?"

After the long speech, Ella's stepmother then had a big laugh, for she believed that her lifelong dream was going to come true. However both of Anastasia and Drizella, though were too weak to utter a word for starvation, cried, "Mother, but you promised after the ball the prince would fall for us and we could have a feast. You promised, we could have a feast!"

"Well then take more of the pills and go to bed, so that when you wake up it will be tomorrow and the wedding of you and the dear prince," laughed loud their mother.

When the royal officer, wearing a sky-high wig as the former one Ella had seen, knocked at the door, Ella's stepmother yelled at her to answer it and herself running up to their chamber to call her daughters down. However, only Anastasia was fortunate enough to wake up from the overdose. But there was no a bit of strength in her body now. Because the lady couldn't stand Anastasia's low walking speed, she kept pushing and pushing her all the way downward.

When Anastasia finally made it to present herself in front of the royal officer, her whole body was highly shaken from top to toe; therefore she nearly broke the slipper as she was trying it on. Everyone in the parlor now was staring at her with wide open eyes.

It actually fit.

Nevertheless, the moment she tried to stand up and walk in the slipper, the outer world she saw suddenly dimmed. Next second, she passed out to a long sleep.

"Well, in that case, Ms. Anastasia clearly had problem to fit the slipper," said the officer.

"Nonsense, she fainted because she was too happy, taking her to the castle and made her the bride of the prince."

The officer minded none of her words and approached to Ella.

"Miss, it's your time to try on the slipper."

Witnessing all this drama, Ella rejected the officer with a bitter smile and sent him out the house, for she would never risk her freedom for confinement whether wealthy or not. Picking up the baggage that she had packed last night, she walked straight out the house without a glimpse of looking back.


End file.
